Step left. Pirouette. Drop, arch the back, kip. Dig in those heels, strafe right.

The steady crack of gunfire followed her every move, bullets licking across her skin. Calling on LIGHTNING, she flicked her eyes about as she watched the bullets creep towards their destinations. Calculating the trajectories, she let LIGHTNING fade as she drew her knives.

Carefully modulating her movements, she planted her feet as the flats of her blades deflected the bullets aimed for her torso. One still managed to punch through her leg, but that was healed in an instant.

“8, head.” Heather ducked at Jamie’s words, wind brushing against the back of her neck as a winding kick flew by. Tucking into a roll, she let the air from the kick push her body forward, springing back to her feet and then diving to the right to avoid another barrage of bullets.

I COULD ALWAYS GIVE YOU SOME–

Quiet. She grit her teeth as a bullet nicked her shoulder before a fist to the gut sent her body flying back. Wind swirled around her, spinning her body so she landed on her feet.

“Thanks, Jay.” Her friend nodded as she dove into the fray, her staff a blur. The earth rolled beneath her feet, but their opponents were barely affected.

Heather coughed into her hand, blood trickling from her mouth as her chest finished healing. Pulling on LIGHTNING again, the world slowed to a crawl as she took stock of their situation.

Rifle Lady had her gun aimed towards Paul, and Heather watched his energy shield flare as a bullet struck it in slow motion. A couple more bullets were in the air between Rifle Lady and Paul, which was concerning. Her rifle was much faster than it should be.

Then Heather saw Rifle Lady’s eyes dart towards her, her rifle twisting in her hands as she moved through Heather’s stagnant world. The barrel aimed at Heather’s chest before the woman pulled the trigger.

The bullet slowed to a crawl after leaving the barrel, inching its way along towards Heather. She raised an eyebrow, feeling her muscles strain from just that basic movement, and the woman grimaced, turning to fire at Paul again.

Well, that was informative. Heather let LIGHTNING drop as she leaned to the right, the bullet whizzing past the side of her face.

“Rifle Lady’s fast. She can move at the same speed I can.” She heard Paul grumble something under his breath while Jamie whistled through her teeth.

“Ah, that explains it! I couldn’t figure out how she was firing that fast,” Jamie said. “Guess we gotta put a stop to that, huh?”

Heather clicked her tongue, ducking again as Fist Guy was sent flying right over her head. Jamie bounded past in pursuit, blurring as she used WIND to speed up her movements.

–chocolate? Chocolate. More–

–down down into the deep–

–can I have a caramel latte with–

Heather hopped on her left foot, her right leg being blow off by a stray bullet from Rifle Lady. Sending LIGHTNING down the missing limb grew it right back. The voices were ignored.

“Hey Rifle Lady!” she called, and the woman turned towards her, her face a mask of barely concealed distain. Heather grinned.

“You sure ya know how ta use that thing? I mean, did ya even hit me?” She gestured towards her right leg, looking for all the world as though the bullet had missed entirely. “You’re gonna have ta try harder than that!”

The rifle swiveled towards Heather, glowing slightly as the woman whispered something under her breath. Heather pulled on LIGHTNING, waiting for the woman to take the shot.

Light flared from the barrel of the rifle as the bullet blazed forth, tracing a path of death and destruction towards Heather’s form. She smirked, waiting for the bullet to slow so she could drop LIGHTNING and move out of its way.

The bullet never slowed. Cursing mentally, Heather tried to dodge, pulling on more of LIGHTNING to force her body to move.

Pain flared through her limbs as her muscles contracted faster than physically possible, but even that was too slow. The bullet drilled right through the center of her chest, only missing her heart by an inch or so.

Heather gasped as LIGHTNING dissipated, falling to her knees. Her chest stitched itself back together, and Rifle Lady’s eyes widened as she finally recognized Heather’s ridiculous regeneration abilities. Still, she failed to notice Paul advancing from behind, and she was forced to disengage as his hammer smashed into her skull.

I got overconfident. Heather had barely managed to dodge in time. If that hit her heart, things would’ve become much more complicated.

“Jay, I don’t think we’re gonna win this if we play our cards close to our chest. I almost died just now. We gotta take initiative.” She pitched her voice down as she called out to Paul about an incoming blow from Fist Guy, and Paul deflected the strike with his hammer.

Jamie sighed across their connection. “I don’t like it, but I think you’re right. Be there in a sec.”

Heather nodded, her focus drifting as Rifle Lady fired a few slow shots towards her, ducking and weaving between the barrage of bullets. She let LIGHTNING build beneath her skin, listening to the pulse of the nebulous core of energy as she continued drawing on it.

Her ears started to ring. A low beat drilled through her skull, causing her eyes to rattle in their sockets. It seeped through her very soul, the pounding drum of pulsating energy.

A second beat joined the first. Slightly out-of-tune, the timing just barely off, undercut by a low buzz. It was all around her, and it felt like she was swimming through the music as she dove under another shot from Rifle Lady. It seemed she’d switched over to firing lasers.

Heather pulled on the energy in her core, molding it to shift the pitch and tempo of its sound to harmonize with the second. Like the flick of a switch, her senses expanded.

Coiling streams of blue energy suddenly filled the arena, permeating the air. Mentally tugging on a couple of the streams, she wove them together before connecting them to Rifle Lady.

A couple laser beams to the chest almost broke her concentration, but she still managed to form the connection. She grinned her bloody teeth at the panicked expression on Rifle Lady’s face as the sky rumbled ominously.

The woman blurred away as a bolt of lightning struck the ground where she’d been standing. Another followed soon after, forcing the woman into a game of cat-and-mouse, the lightning drawing closer and closer. Heather wove the streams of energy tighter as the woman moved further away, feeling a slight drain on her reserves.

The ground split at her feet, Jamie dragging herself out from its fractured surface, her staff swinging as it batted Fist Guy away. He went flying towards the other end of the arena, and Heather connected some of the streams of energy to him as well, calling more lightning bolts into existence.

“Wish we’d had that earlier,” Jamie commented, her gaze fixed on the crackling energy raining from the sky. “Would’ve made the TOWER easier.”

Heather nodded, keeping the connections to their opponents intact as Paul moved to stand by her side. Satisfaction welled in her chest as she watched their opponents franticly dodging left and right, struggling to outrun her assault.

“If they’re gonna use SHROUD or RAMPAGE, it’ll be soon,” Paul said. “We’re dragging this out too long, and with Heather’s REGEN they can’t afford to take risks.”

“I agree. H, you ready?”

“I should have enough left in the tank, yeah.”

“Good. Paul, you’re our defense. If we’re gonna do this, H and I gotta go all-in. You got us covered?”

He nodded, sending them a small smile. “Yeah, I gotcha.”

Moving so that he stood between Heather and Jamie, he laid a hand on both of their shoulders, his palms glowing yellow. Heather felt energy seep through her body from the point of contact, and she gasped as she watched Jamie get surrounded by a soft golden glow.

Paul’s eyes twinkled. “I just hit LEVEL 50, so I unlocked PROTECT. Should hold up for a couple of hits.”

Emotion swelled in Heather’s chest, but she pushed it away. She needed to focus. So, nodding, she turned back towards their opponents.

Fist Guy and Rifle Lady were gradually getting used to the bolts of lightning raining down around them. Their movements were becoming more controlled, less frantic, and Heather knew her team didn’t have much time left.

“Alright, Jay,” she said, “what’s the plan? Should we wait until they activate SHROUD or RAMPAGE, or should we just jump right in?”

Jamie hummed, her hands shifting their grip on her staff. Then her eyes sharpened.

“I’d say we jump right in. We’re operating under the assumption that they have SHROUD and RAMPAGE, but there’s always the possibility that we’re wrong. Just stay focused and be ready for anything.”

The temperature dropped, the air turning cold and damp. Heather grinned, pulling on LIGHTNING as she tensed her legs.

WELL, I MUST SAY–

She buried the voice deep within herself, blocking it out. The other voices rose to the surface, screaming and hollering as they crawled their way out of the void.

For those… she left them be. They were manageable, unlike that thing from the ABYSS. Besides, she knew it dialed her creepiness factor up by at least ten, which was always useful.

She pulled and pulled and pulled, her core of LIGHTNING straining as she siphoned its energy. It shuddered, pulsed once, and then she felt something crack. Pain wracked her form as her body fell apart and rebuilt itself anew.

Her surroundings turned to monochrome as she fell into the state that she’d achieved when breaking herself out of MIND BREAK. She breathed, and lightning replaced the air in her lungs. Electricity filled her veins, her heart, her very soul.

“LEt'S dO ThIS,” she whispered, the voices of the dead whispering with her. Jamie’s violet eyes glanced her way before she nodded, and they both were off.

She and Jamie converged on Rifle Lady and Fist Guy in a whirlwind of dirt and lightning. She heard shouts from their opponents as she darted to and froe, her muscles burning as they strained, being pushed far past their limits.

The bones in her leg snapped as she shot forward, lashing out with one of her knives. Crackling crimson energy arced down the blade, and Fist Guy’s eyes were wide as he leapt backwards, barely dodging her strike.

Then he screamed, his muscles twitching as the electricity in her blade shot through the air straight into his chest. Heather felt lips pull in a sick grin, overcome with glee.

That’s new. She glanced down at her knives, feeling the way they thrummed and pulsed, filled with the rampant energy of LIGHTNING. They glowed a deep red, wreathed in crimson.

A blast of energy struck her chest, and she grunted as Paul’s PROTECT took the hit, the yellow shield flickering. She darted to the right to avoid another blast, spotting Fist Guy rushing towards Jamie as her friend closed in on Rifle Lady.

“6, lower back,” she called, and Fist Guy ran head-first into a wall of dirt. He groaned, disoriented, and Heather pounced on his back, stabbing him multiple times before disengaging.

Red lines from his injuries covered his avatar as he turned towards her, staggering slightly as Jamie struck the back of his left knee with her staff. He growled, glaring at them both as he smacked his fists together.

A wave of boiling air blew Heather off her feet. She spun through the air, feeling the wind whipping around her. Rolling, she landed back on her feet, sliding along the ground for a second or two before coming to a stop.

Clouds of dust obscured her vision, and she coughed as some went down her windpipe. Paul stumbled over to her side with his hammer drawn, his hands shaking. She heard the crack of a rifle, but she couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.

Something flew out from the dust, and Paul vanished with a yell, rocketing across the arena. Heather instinctively sped up her senses, barely able to perceive Fist Guy charging towards her, his right fist chambered and glowing as he prepared to strike.

She shattered her legs again as she leapt away, wincing as the bones reknit before she could even hit the ground. Stepping to the left, she twisted to avoid his second blow, her movements sluggish and halting.

Clenching her jaw, she pulled on her dwindling reserves of LIGHTNING, her chest flaring with pain as she forced more energy throughout her body. Steam came out of Fist Guy’s mouth as he dove back towards her with a roar. She barely ducked in time, wind from his kick wildly whipping her hair.

A blast from Rifle Lady struck her in the side, and she shrieked as Paul’s PROTECT shattered. She leapt above the next shot, vaulting off Fist Guy’s shoulders to create some distance.

“WOAH! THIS IS A CLOSE ONE! I CAN’T WAIT–” Heather spun right, using her momentum to slice Fist Guy’s chest in the process. Her hyperfocus made it near impossible to register the announcer’s words.

"Hm… that’s not the THREE-POINT ACTOR SKILL,” he mumbled, and Heather felt a spike of fear pierce her heart. His posture loosened as his lips curled up in a cruel smirk.

“Ah! I think I get it now! If that’s the case… Rach! Get some BARRIERS going!”

No! Heather scanned her surroundings, desperately searching for anything that could get them out of this. The only things she found were Jamie’s wide, terrified eyes as they both realized that the ruse was up.

Glowing purple planes of light suddenly surrounded her, pressing in on her body from all sides. She squirmed, trying to escape, but the pressure increased and forced her to stop moving.

“Jay!” she screamed, watching the same thing happen to her friend. Paul was spared, but the blows from his hammer barely did any damage to Rifle Lady, only causing knockback. They were trapped.

“Well,” Fist guy chuckled, “this was fun. I think we’re done here, though.” His fists glowed as he readied his next SKILL, Heather shuddering in place as she tried to break through the BARRIERS. But it was useless; SKILLS to break BARRIERS didn’t exist in Realistic Mode.

“Now… dodge this!” He drove his fist into her chest, and Heather cried out in pain as her stomach imploded. Another blow came from the side, shattering her ribs. Blood spilled from her mouth, her vision going dim as she felt his fists pulverize her chest like a sack of useless meat.

LIGHTNING built beneath her skin, shocking Fist Guy anytime he got too close, but the man just grinned wider as he continued raining blows down on her avatar. She screamed, choking on blood and spit as her rib pierced her lung.

Everything was healed an instant later, and the fists came down again. Her skull shattered, her senses going dangerously dark as shards of bone pierced her brain. Luckily, nothing too important was struck, so she healed quickly.

Her world was awash in agony. LIGHTNING kept charring her skin as she tried forcing the man away, go away, but it wasn’t working. It just added to the pain, burning her body from the inside out.

She didn’t know how long it lasted, but eventually the man stopped. Heather felt him push himself away from her bloody body, saying something far too warbled to make out. Her chest finished regenerating, along with her ears, and finally she could breathe again.

The cold metal barrel of a gun came to rest on her forehead as her leg snapped back into place. Distantly, she heard screaming. It took her far to long to realize that it came from herself.

Jumbled voices built in her skull, making her head throb as they tried to drag her down with them. With the frayed remnants of her sanity, she performed her final desperate ploy, hoping she could finish before Rifle Lady pulled the trigger.

Pulling on the beat of the world around her, she felt for the strands of energy woven within reality. Instead of weaving them together like she’d practiced, she decided to spit them apart, wrapping the thin strands around her form.

She could feel a slight recoil from the rifle as the beam fired, but with LIGHTNING running through her veins, she still had some time before the beam pierced her skull. The world seemed to pulse as she continued weaving the strands of energy around her, working as fast as she could.

But it wasn’t enough, and she felt her skin split on her forehead as the laser made its decent. She drew on more and more energy, speeding herself up as much as possible. The dull throb in her head slowly increased to a burning pain as the energy traveled closer to her brain.

Things clicked into place, and Heather snapped out of existence.

Her body dissolved into motes of light and energy, a crackling burst of lightning that streaked towards the other end of the arena. There was no real sense of self, no true thoughts as she moved, just an almost jittery feeling like she’d drank too much coffee that morning.

The lightning condensed at the other end of the arena, and Heather felt her body get reconstructed as the energy dissipated. Her stomach flipped, and she fell to her knees, regurgitating the contents of her breakfast.

Release the trigger, pump the round. Well, at least that sort of made sense now. It wasn’t perfect, but she’d look more into perfecting that aspect of LIGHTNING later.

Forcing herself to her feet, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, the aftertaste of bile on her tongue. The energy in her core went dark, leaving her with an empty feeling in her chest. She felt slow, lethargic.

A thick fog now covered the arena, low and heavy, and Heather could hear shouts and low grunts coming from the mist. There was a flash of yellow light, and Fist Guy rocketed out of the mist straight towards her.

“Heather!” she heard Paul yell, and she didn’t waste the opportunity he’d given her. Strengthening her stance, she raised her blades as Fist Guy fell right into them, one sliding through the back of his skull and the other puncturing his chest.

He gasped, his body lurching as he tried to swing his fist towards her. Before he could strike, though, his avatar dissolved into blue particles of light as he was eliminated. The wind carried the particles away, and she watched them float off into the distance to be revived at his last saved location.

Serves him right. Can’t believe he willingly put me through that when he knew I was playing on Realistic Mode. What, does he not realize how painful that is?

Observing the rest of the arena, Heather heard the rapid crack of gunfire before Jamie bounced out of the mist. Her staff dug into the ground, ripping it apart as her friend brought her momentum to a halt.

Heather recoiled at the snarl on her friend’s face, her violet eyes filled with a deep hatred. Some of the smokey mist shifted, and she watched as Jamie was struck by bullets from all directions. Her friend deflected as many as she could, but she wasn’t perfect.

One bullet glanced off Jamie’s arm, leaving a large welt that was already beginning to bruise. Another pierced her thigh, stopping an inch or so beneath the skin. Jamie’s staff lashed out, smacking an invisible opponent within the mist, and Heather heard Rifle Lady let out a grunt of pain.

So, I was right. That’s SHROUD. Honestly, compared to what she’d seen from some of the other players, it was more disappointing than she’d expected. Paired with BERSERKER, it would work well, but Fist Guy had been eliminated before he could really get into his stride.

Besides, Fist Guy's BERSERKER hadn't been too bad either. It only seemed to increase his strength and speed, leaving his durability the same.

“H, a little help here?” Heather sighed, running towards her friend as Rifle Lady continued firing. She kept alternating between shooting lasers and standard ammunition, trying to throw Jamie off. It wasn’t working.

Heather wove between shots as her knives flashed back and forth, her eyes peeled for their invisible opponent. Some of the shots struck her torso, but those still healed quickly even without LIGHTNING boosting her REGEN.

Eventually, Paul appeared and wrapped the invisible Rifle Lady in coiling yellow energy. She thrashed for a moment before the bonds shattered, her form flickering into existence as she prepared to shoot Paul in the head.

Then Jamie pounced on her, ripping the gun from her hands as the two of them went down in a tangle of limbs. The air was filled with snarls and frantic shouting as the woman tried to shove Jamie off, but Jamie held on and kept chomping through the woman’s neck. The crowd and announcer were suspiciously silent.

Finally, the woman dissolved into light like Fist Guy and floated off into the distance, exiting the arena. Jamie’s eyes reverted to her normal green, the maniac gleam fading to a mellower spark. She grinned at Heather, red light dribbling down her chin. Heather shuddered.

“UH– WELL– THAT WAS BRUTAL! I’M SHAKING JUST FROM WATCHING! GIVE IT UP FOR… THE CLEARERS!”

The crowd’s cheering was more subdued in the wake of Jamie’s actions, but Heather couldn’t bring herself to care. They were all still alive. That was all that mattered.

She glanced at the rest of her teammates, trading nods. Leaning against Paul, they all stumbled their way out of the arena, their energy declining as the adrenaline faded from their systems.

One day down. Two more to go.